Optimising your website for search engines is a key aspect of any business’s marketing strategy. From content SEO to technical SEO, your whole site can be optimised to give you the best possible chance of making it to the top of the search results for your keywords.
Sounds like a lot of work, right? We’re here to break it down for you into the most important things that you can do to increase visibility. If you’d like to start taking your SEO further, you can enlist the help of a specialist SEO agency for small businesses. An agency can take you through the necessary steps to implement a successful SEO strategy. But first, let’s take a deep dive into what you could be doing for your eCommerce business to rise up the SERPs.
Run a Site Audit
Before you get into the nitty gritty of your optimisations, you need to start by running a site audit to take stock of where you’re at to begin with. A site audit will identify any existing issues affecting your user experience (UX) and the organic traffic reaching your site. You can take a look at technical issues, such as loading speeds and broken internal links, as well as content SEO issues such as duplicate content.
The audit is a starting point from which you can start making changes and then return to review your progress on key site health metrics. There are plenty of useful tools that can help you evaluate your SEO performance, such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Perform Keyword Research
Once you’ve started assessing your SEO performance, it’s time to look at those all-important keywords. These are the words that matter most to your eCommerce business. Whether they’re the names of your products or your brand name, identifying your primary keywords and checking where you rank for them helps to tell you how much work you need to do. When you’re looking at keywords, a helpful thing to do is consider the intent behind the keyword – are people using this search term looking to buy a product or are they doing a broader search for information? As an eCommerce business, you want to focus on keywords with a commercial intent as these are the most likely to convert into paying customers.
Once you’ve identified the keywords that you want to optimise for, you can start adapting your on-site content to make these words more prominent. Consider using them in your headings, as well as in the main body of your text (without overdoing it).
Optimise Product Pages
As an eCommerce business, your product pages are at the heart of what you do. They’re also a key factor in your user experience that Google will be analysing to decide your ranking position. Things that you can do to optimise your product pages for SEO include: using high-quality, unique images, including keywords, detailed descriptions and testimonials.
At the end of the day, Google is looking for quality, a quality experience for users in every way. So, anything you can do that will enhance the user experience will likely also land you in the SEO good books. Detailed descriptions and testimonials help customers to make informed purchasing decisions and therefore provide a better quality of experience.
Make Your Site User Friendly
SEO is truly all about understanding the user experience (UX). You can enhance UX with good design, clear CTAs and an easy-to-use navigational system. If users are finding your site hard to navigate, Google will flag this as an issue with your site.
For an eCommerce business, UX is about making sure your website visitors can find what they’re looking for. You can do this using a clear navigation bar at the top or along the side of your site, allowing visitors to get to their destination in as few clicks as possible. At the end of the day, the more clicks a user has to do to complete a purchase, the more likely they are to drop off along the way.
Use a Simple URL Structure
A technical side of websites that can be easily overlooked is your URL structure. A straightforward URL structure not only enhances the user experience but also is a tick in the SEO box.
For the user, a simple URL structure makes it easier for them to understand where they are on the site, and it’s more relevant data for search engines. These URLs are also easier to share on social media and other websites. For the best results, URLs should be as readable and concise as possible; shorter URLs generally are easier for search engines and users alike to understand.
Avoid Duplicate Pages and Content
Believe it or not, more is not always merrier when it comes to website content. Duplicating content, such as product descriptions, reduces the quality of the pages. Google wants to see unique, valuable content, not the same thing written over and over again. You can vary duplicate content by adding a suffix to an identical URL, using varied product images and adding unique keywords.
The more unique and informative each page is, the better, so try to make sure every page on your eCommerce site serves a purpose for the user and is fulfilling that purpose.
